Why do you log dives?

[scubadrewvideo]

I've been diving for 15 years now and never logged a dive. Some of you brag about dive counts like you get a Gold watch at 1000 or something. What's the point? Is it for the insurance company because this is a business?

You have never logged a dive...never breathed from a free flow reg.....and you think there are floating plastic islands.

Need I say anymore?

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

I log all of my dives. I make notes about fish and sea creatures, odd trash I've brought up, Bozo divers I've assisted, and how much weight I wore, what mm suit for the water temp. Plus I was over 50 when I learned to dive, so I want to see how many I can do before I'm old as hell and have to give it up.

I log all my dives for the same reasons. I want to write down what I did and saw; gear configuration; if something went wrong and how I and my buddy reacted; what I learned from the experience (like the time I used my octo to fill a beer bottle with air at 30 feet and filled my hood instead. ) before I forget it. I usually write something in my log book right away and use my notes to write more detail when I download the dives from my VT3. I let my dive computer collect the data and I record the memories.

I was on a live aboard in January and I was the only diver on the boat that still filled in a log book. Some of the divers ribbed me at the time but a few have since contacted me asking questions like, what site we dove at on the third dive of the second day? Or how many bugs did so-n-so bring up from the night dive?

Something tells me they may have started writing stuff down.

Steve.

 

[Doc Harry]

How in the heck, besides flipping through every page, do you find that configuration? I keep a paper log, but I'm looking forward to the day when a device that looks like a Kindle and works like a tricorder is about as common as a cell phone is today. Until then, I'm too lazy to enter my paper logbook into a searchable database.

I keep a table in my dive gear that has all of my dive configurations and weight requirements. I update it as necessary. That way I don't have to take my dive logs with me.

 

[mikeyjoe]

I keep a log book mainly for the same reasons people keep diarys - as a personal memoire of my diving, for my personal reflection.

It's fun to look back on my first dives, to see how over-weighted I was and how fast I blew through a tank. I am sure in a few years when I have 500 dives, I'll look back to today and see progess in my consumption. I like knowing when I pass through a milestone - 50 dives, 100 dives, 500 dives. It's not so I can brag - I like knowing for me.

It also comes in handy to remember how much weight I need in my 3mm tropical suit on vacation, as apposed to my drysuit.

Comes in handy when I give advice on divesites I have visited on vacation, as I did when someone needed Cozumel advice on SB lately.

Lastly, I am finishing off my DM and I would like to be an instructor one day and I'll have to prove 100 logged dives.

That's cool that a logbook serves no purpose for you, but these are a few reasons why it does for me......

Michael

 

[peret]

I logged all my dives including pool dives. Why?
Several reasons including all reasons mentioned here before.

During first dives...it was a nice feeling to fill the log...later I noticed that wherever I'we been peoples wanted to see my dive log and not my card (Countries where was required: Thailand, Mexico, Mauritius, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Emirates-Dubai). All said that card can be easy falsified but the log book not so easy.

So in the end it was a good decision to have it and I will continue to fill it.

 

[Walter]

I logged all my dives including pool dives.

Do you include your pool dives in your total count?

 

[Dr Neil]

Besides what everyone else has said, it gives me something to do on the looong boat ride home.

Seriously, I have had a couple of dive operations request to see my log book. It has saved me from having to do a skills test or dive with a group.

We require evidence of a diver's last five dives (a copy of their log book pages) before they can tryout for the volunteer dive team at the VA Aquarium.

 

[JDostal]

We require evidence of a diver's last five dives (a copy of their log book pages) before they can tryout for the volunteer dive team at the VA Aquarium.

I forgot about that sort of thing. I also have to show that I've conducted X dives within a certain time period to be able to participate as a research diver for the state of WI on shipwreck surveys the state historical society does every year.

I think the question is more why DOESN'T someone log a dive? There are so many good reasons to do it!

 

[sambolino44]

Do you include your pool dives in your total count?

I wondered how to handle situations where I wanted to record stuff, like a pool dive or a called dive, and just decided to go ahead and put whatever I want in my book, but only update the sequential dive count on, well, dives that count. This came up with a dive where we couldn't descend, but there was a bunch of stuff I wanted to record about what happened.

 

[AmericanDive]

Go digital with you dive logs!!! I started using digital dive logs online and found the enjoyment in keeping track again. I have found success with American Dive Institute's dive log system at AmericanDiveInstitute .com